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Joseph Stalin
"Joe Steele" redirects here. For other uses, see Joe Steele (Disambiguation) |POD = Set in the future |type of appearance = Posthumous}} Joseph Stalin (Russian, Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин; Georgian, იოსებ ბესარიონის ძე ჯუღაშვილი) (born Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, 18 December 1878 - 5 March 1953) was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953. During that time he established an autocratic regime on an effective new model now known as Stalinism, which has been often imitated ever since. As one of several Central Committee Secretariats, Stalin's formal position was originally limited in scope, but through increasing control of the Party from 1928 onwards, he became the de facto party leader and Soviet dictator. His crash programs of industrialization and collectivization in the 1930s and his campaigns of political repression cost the lives of millions of Soviet citizens through state-sponsored violence. However, it helped to make the Soviet Union the second largest industrial nation by 1937. During Stalin's reign, the Soviet Union played a major role in the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War (1939–1945) (more commonly known in Russia and post-Soviet republics as the Great Patriotic War). Under Stalin's leadership, the Soviet Union went on to achieve recognition as one of the greatest superpowers in the post-war era, a status that lasted for nearly four decades after his death. After his death, Stalin's eventual successor, Nikita Khrushchev seized on the horrors of Stalin's reign to gain political advantage, embarking on a program of "de-Stalinization" that was designed to tear down the lingering remnants of Stalin's cult of personality and politically neutralize Stalin's surviving supporters. In the last days of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev candidly condemned Stalin and his brutal regime. However, with the fall of the Soviet Union and increasing instability in Russia, as well as the erosion of Russian commitment to democracy, a certain nostalgia for the days of strong, capable leadership (or at least for an idealized impression thereof) has seen some rehabilitation of Stalin's reputation. Joseph Stalin in The Gladiator In an alternate where the USSR won the Cold War, Joseph Stalin was considered one of the great heroes of the Soviet Union and the world.The Gladiator, pg. 8. Joseph Stalin in The Man With the Iron Heart It was Joseph Stalin's stated intention that Germany never be able to invade the Soviet Union again. To that end, he gave the Red Army a very free hand in the conquest and occupation of Germany, encouraging his forces to meet violent resistance with even greater violence. However, Stalin's generally suspicious nature did him no favors, as Soviet occupation authorities were strictly forbidden from cooperating with their Western Allies in their fight against the German Freedom Front. Indeed, it was only after NKVD agents in Berlin transferred custody of a DP to their American counter-parts was GFF leader Reinhard Heydrich found and killed. Joseph Stalin in "Ready for the Fatherland" in 1943. ("Ready for the Fatherland")]]Joseph Stalin gladly accepted Erich von Manstein's offer for a separate peace between the Soviet Union and Germany in 1943, despite the Allied Forces' stated goal of unconditional surrender.See, e.g., Counting Up, Counting Down, pg. 97. After the United States began occupying Japan, Stalin ordered the invasion of the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. In 1953, Stalin ordered American-occupied Tokyo destroyed by a sunbomb. The United States bombed Vladivostok in response. Stalin died before the conflict could escalate into full-fledged war.Ibid., pg. 92. , and Winston Churchill led the Allied Forces in World War II]] Joseph Stalin in Worldwar '''Joseph Stalin' ruled the Soviet Union during World War II and during the battle against the Race's Conquest Fleet. Under his leadership--and his willingness to kill, maim, and devastate innumerable Soviet citizens--the Soviet Union withstood the Race's invasion--despite a pervasive paranoia that hampered may of his advisors' ability to do their jobs effectively and a meddlesome style of government that led him to interfere in a number of projects which he did not fully understand. , Stalin continued to support anti-Race struggles, especially the Chinese Communist Party's.]]Stalin was recognized as "not-emperor" of the Soviet Union until his death in 1953. Throughout his life, he supported Mao Tse-Tung's Communist revolution in China. After his death, he was succeeded by Vyacheslav Molotov. Stalin and Adolf Hitler of Germany most closely resembled of all the Tosevite "not-emperors" the Race's conception of a true "emperor". However, neither man had any hereditary claim to their position, which explained, from the Race's perspective, why both ruled through terror and force. Joseph Stalin in In the Presence of Mine Enemies Jospeh Stalin (1878 to mid-1940s) led the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany during the Second World War, and was ultimately defeated.In the Presence of Mine Enemies,, pg. 4, generally. In 2011, a musical about a terrible play about the evil of Stalin and Winston Churchill became a smash hit.Ibid., pg. 139. Joseph Stalin in The War That Came Early Joseph Stalin had been interfering in the affairs of continental Europe through much of the 1930s. During the Spanish Civil War, Stalin supported the Spanish Republicans against the Spanish Nationalists, who were in turn supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Stalin also entered into a mutual-protection pact with Czechoslovakia. While the Soviet Union was not asked to attend the 1938 Munich Conference by either Britain or France, the two western Allies' decision to declare war on Germany once Germany attacked Czechoslovakia emboldened Stalin to honor his own alliance with Czechoslovakia, and declare war on Germany himself. In the early phase of the war, the Soviet Union provided the most assistance to Czechoslovakia. However, Czechoslovakia was separated from the Soviet Union by neutrals Poland and Romania. As the USSR had asserted territorial claims in both, neither permitted the Red Army to cross their territory. Thus, Soviet aid to Czechoslovakia was limited to air support. The Western Allies did not act aggressively, and by November, 1938, Czechoslovakia had fallen. Nonetheless, Stalin called for continued engagements with Germany, including bombing raids on East Prussia. Stalin also continued to press Poland to allow Soviet troops to cross its frontier. Stalin ordered an invasion in early 1939. Poland aligned itself with Germany in response. This new front did not prove immediately successful for the Soviet Union. Adding to the chaos, in April, 1939, Japan, which had invaded China, invaded Siberia. For the remainder of 1939 and into the summer of 1940, the USSR fought a two-front war against the German-Polish Alliance in the west and Japan in the east. Stalin concentrated his country's efforts primarily on the West. As the months passed and it was clear Britain and France were at best lukewarm in their war efforts, Soviet propaganda grew increasingly hostile to the country's ostensible allies. As Germany made gains in Scandinavia, Stalin announced in the closing months of 1939 that the USSR had grown concerned about Finland's ability to maintain its neutrality. Concurrently, after Stalin had several officers executed, the Red Army made substantial gains in Poland by the end of the year. However, in the early months of 1940, it soon became clear that thee would be a political adjusment in the west when Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess parachuted into the U.K., and was able to convince the governments of both Britain and France to join Germany against the USSR. Anticipating that Hess might prove successful, Stalin ordered Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinov to travel to Tokyo to complete a truce with Japan. Stalin willingly surrendered Vladivostok, and began preparing for a larger invasion force. After Britain and France accepted Germany's offer, the new alliance invaded Russian territory, making substantial advances as it moved eastward. Joseph Stalin in "The Phantom Tolbukhin" During the 1930s, Joseph Stalin's purges led to the executions of many senior Soviet generals, including Georgy Zhukov and Ivan Koniev. Germany's success in defeating the Soviet Union in May, 1941 was attributed to the resulting disorganization of the Red Army.See, e.g., Counting Up, Counting Down, pg. 112. Still Stalin was able to control the tattered remains of the USSR as it struggled to expel Germany in 1947.Ibid., pgs. 106-107. Literary comment At a minimum, the characters in "The Phantom Tolbukhin" believe Stalin is still alive. Joseph Stalin in ''Joe Steele Joseph Vissarion "Joe" Steele (born Iosef Dzhugashvili, December 18, 1878 - March 5, 1953) was a California lawyer and politician who served as the 32nd President of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1953. He was elected to an unprecedented six terms. He lead his country through the Great Depression, World War II, and the Japanese War, but his efforts to assert his will over the country while claiming to act in its best interests severely curtailed democracy in America during his life, and set the stage for the final collapse of democracy after his death. Early Life and Career Steele was born a few months after his parents arrived in the United States. He grew up in Fresno, California, where he picked grapes in his youth. He put himself through law school and opened his own practice. He entered politics, first becoming a city councilman in Fresno, and a Democratic Congressman.Joe Steele, pg. 46. He married a woman named Betty. The couple had two children, but lost both to diphtheria within days of each other. Steele threw himself into his work (Betty was left adrift).Ibid., pg. 42. Gaining the White House In 1932, Steele and New York governor Franklin D. Roosevelt became the front runners for the party's presidential nomination. Steele touted his Four Year Plan, which included collectivizing farms, updating the country's power grid, and nationalizing the banks. Roosevelt pledged his New Deal plan.Ibid., pgs. 2-3. Steele secretly attended the convention in Chicago, a fact known only to his close advisers: Vince Scriabin, Lazar Kagan, and Stas Mikoian. AP reporter Charlie Sullivan also knew after running into Steele and Scriabin in a hotel elevator. As Sullivan backed Steele over Roosevelt, he kept his peace.Ibid., pgs. 1-2. Conversely, Roosevelt remained in Albany as was the custom.Ibid. After the first day of balloting, Roosevelt held a press conference in Albany, during which he extolled the virtues of his proposed New Deal. He also implied Steele's Four Year Plan was proof of Steele's authoritarian tendencies, and that as the child of immigrants, Steele didn't truly understand how America worked.Ibid., pgs. 12-15. Meanwhile, in Chicago, after two days of votes, neither had the needed two-thirds majority, although Roosevelt had a slight edge.Ibid., pg. 15. Realizing he might lose after another day of voting, Steele directed Scriabin to have Roosevelt burned alive at Executive Mansion in Albany.Ibid., pg. 16-17.Ibid. pgs. 18-21. Kagan and Mikoian were not privy to the initial planning.Ibid. pg 22. However, Sullivan, by happenstance, overheard Scriabin on the phone giving the order for the arson.Ibid., pg. 16. Steele never knew this. However, in light of Sullivan's "fairness" in his reporting, Steele personally met with Sullivan and promised that Sullivan would always have access to Steele's camp.Ibid., pg. 27. With his primary opponent gone, Steele became the party's presidential nominee.Ibid., pgs. 22-27. His running mate was John Nance Garner, with whom Steele had reached an early arrangement.Ibid., pg. 2. Through his vigorous campaigning, populist appeal and his relatively concrete Four Year Plan, Steele handily defeated his opponent, incumbent President Herbert Hoover.Ibid., pg. 38. First Term From his inauguration, Steele put his Four Year Plan into action. While he wasn't a particularly dynamic speaker, he did speak with confidence. During his inaugural address as president on March 4, 1933, he emphasized his humble beginnings, his status as a self-made man, and promised that the American people would have jobs in his Four Year Plan. Moreover, he promised that he would be "rough and harsh" toward those who were "harming" the United States. He concluded with one last populist promise to nationalize the country's banks, which was met with thunderous applause.Ibid, pgs. 45-48. Steele didn't waste time, calling a special session of Congress, and introduced legislation that nationalized the banks. When he was met with opposition from conservative members of Congress, Steele reached out to young-and-coming Bureau of Investigation chief J. Edgar Hoover to investigate opponents of the nationalization scheme. Hoover "found out" that Senator Carter Glass, the leader of the opposition, had a secret love child with his family's Negro maid in his youth.Ibid., pg. 58-59. When Steele shared this information with Glass, Glass caved and changed his vote. Soon enough, the remaining opponents fell in line.Ibid. pgs. 49-51. With the nationalization complete, Steele continued proposing legislation to regulate the country's financial institutions and labor unions. Moreover, after his willingness to blackmail his opponents during the nationalization fight, the bills Steele proposed sailed through Congress. He also instituted make-work projects and proposed community farms in the Midwest. While some critics suggested Steele's community farms were identical to the farms in the Soviet Union, Steele responded by telling the people: "If you want to see food on the table and men proud of what they do, let your Senators and Representatives know about it." The farm bill passed.Ibid, pgs. 64-65. The various comparisons of Steele's policies to the Soviet Union's were ironic, as Steele was quiet vocal in his hatred for Leon Trotsky. Indeed, the US did not recognize the Soviet government until the outbreak of World War II.Ibid., pg. 203. In mid-1933, Steele proposed legislation for electrifying the Tennessee Valley, the last piece of legislation in the special session. He went on radio to ask the American people tell their Senators and Representatives to support the bill. The Administration also took the liberty of composing letters, claiming to be from citizens, and sending them to Congress.Ibid., pgs. 67-70. However, the federal judiciary began overturning the legislation on appeal, and soon, most of the Four Year Plan was before the Supreme Court, which systematically began ruling the legislation unconstitutional.Ibid., pg.71-72 In response, Steele ordered J. Edgar Hoover to investigate the court.Ibid., pg. 73-74. Then Steele gave a radio speech in which he denounced the Supreme Court as nine old men who were not elected, and who were actively wrecking the country. Steele implied the Court's actions were deliberate, and promised that there would be an investigation.Ibid., pgs. 76-77. Hoover discovered "evidence" that four justices, James McReynolds, Pierce Butler, Willis Van Devanter, and George Sutherland, (who were also the most consistent in ruling the Four Year Plan unconstitutional) were in fact colluding with foreign powers against the United States. In February, 1934, Hoover led a group of agents to very publicly arrest the Supreme Court Four for treason while they were in the middle of deliberations.Ibid., pgs. 83-84. Steele then took the additional step of suspending the writ of habeas corpus, much to the astonishment and horror of many. Steele argued that, while the country was not in a rebellion or at war with another country, it was at war with hunger, want, and poverty.Ibid, pgs. 87-89. In the midst of these larger national issues, Mike Sullivan, a reporter with the New York Post, and brother of Charlie Sullivan, received a copy of the arson report for the fire that killed the Roosevelts. Mike Sullivan did not support Steele. Charlie had previously told Mike about Vince Scriabin's long distance call at the convention, and Mike himself had attempted to further review the Albany Fire Department's investigation of the fire, but had hit a brick wall.Ibid., pg. 56-62. Now, two years later, Mike received the report and published a story, which noted that the report implied that bottles of some flammable liquid may have played a part in the fire, but did not say conclusively that the fire had been an arson. Sullivan's story further described the conflict between Roosevelt and Steele, and the fact that Roosevelt appeared to be on the verge of winning the nomination when he died. Sullivan made no direct accusations.Ibid., pgs. 92-94. Steele ordered Vince Scriabin to meet with Charlie Sullivan personally, and demand Charlie get his brother under controlIbid., pgs. 95-96. In September, 1934, the Supreme Court Four were tried by a military tribunal. The Four confessed to colluding with Germany, and were sentenced to death by the tribunal. Further, the Four identified Louisiana Senator Huey Long and radio personality Father Coughlin as being part of their "conspiracy".Ibid., pgs. 101-104. While their attorneys did appeal to the remaining Supreme Court and Steele himself, Steele refused to grant clemency, and the Four were promptly executed.Ibid., pgs. 111, 117-118. Coughlin was taken into custody, but Long immediately returned to Baton Rouge ahead of an arrest, and began railing against Steele's new "War of Northern Aggression". Long's hold on the state was such that even Federal officers kowtowed to him.Ibid., pg. 112. Steele's calm response was that the laws of the country had to be obeyed, and that Long should taken into custody.Ibid., pg. 113. The issue was rendered moot when Long was shot through the head by a sniper while speaking in front of city hall while giving a speech in Alexandria. His bodyguards responded in a confused manner, with several opening fire into the crowd, killing an additional twenty people.Ibid., pg. 113. Long's assassin was never caught. Coughlin was placed before a tribunal. Like the Four, Coughlin confessed, and was sentenced to death.Ibid., pgs. 124-125. When his lawyers appealed to Steele for clemency, Steele declined, quoting Abraham Lincoln: "Must I shoot a simple-minded deserter, while I must not touch a hair of a wily agitator who induces him to desert?"Ibid., pg. 125. Coughlin was executed a few days later.Ibid., pg. 126. In 1935, Steele introduced legislation that would allow the Federal government to draft prisoners out of local, state, and federal detention facilities and put them to work building infrastructure in the Midwest and Rocky Mountain regions. It cleared the House of Representatives quickly and quietly before anyone took notice. Mike Sullivan became aware of the bill after reading a column in the New York Times.Ibid., pgs. 127-128. Sullivan wrote a piece entitled "Land of the Free and Home of the Labor Camp", which was highly critical of bill.Ibid., pgs. 128-129. In response, Vince Scriabin once again sat down with Charlie Sullivan. After showing Charlie a part of the legislation that seemed to prevent indefinite detentions, Scriabin convinced him to write an article supporting the legislation. Charlie, wanting to maintain access to the Steele administration, agreed. The bill passed the Senate the following week, and Charlie was invited to watch Steele sign the bill into law. J. Edgar Hoover was at Steele's right elbowIbid., pgs. 129-134. In March, 1936, German leader Adolf Hitler remilitarized the Rhineland. Steele, who hated Hitler about as much as he hated Leon Trotsky, albeit for different reasons, condemned Hitler's move. He also condemned France's failure to respond, and stated (after the fact) that the US would have supported France in any way possible short of war. Steele and Hitler shared a series of retorts and insults that meant little given geography.Ibid., pgs. 134-135. Steele's public speeches stood in stark contrast to the Republican Party, which was completely silent about international affairs in the months before the 1936 election. At their convention, they nominated Kansas Governor Alf Landon, with Frank Knox as his running mate.Ibid., pgs. 135-136.. Landon initially tried to present himself as the true populist in the race, reminding the country that Kansas had been home to the first Populists. However, that appeal was quickly drowned out when Charlie Sullivan used the definition of the word "populist" Ambrose Bierce created in The Devil's Dictionary: "A fossil patriot of the early agricultural period, found in the old red soapstone underlying Kansas; characterized by an uncommon spread of ear, which some naturalists contend gave him the power of flight, though Professors Morse and Whitney, pursuing independent lines of thought, have ingeniously pointed out that had he possessed it he would have gone elsewhere. In the picturesque speech of his period, some fragments of which have come down to us, he was known as 'The Matter with Kansas.'" In short order, Landon was dubbed "the Matter with Kansas" by the Steele campaign. Landon unsuccessfully tried to turn the name around, claiming that if he were the Matter with Kansas, Steele was the matter with the whole country.Joe Steele, pgs. 134-136. Steele won in a landslide, carrying 46 out of the 48 states, with only Maine and Vermont going to Landon.Ibid., pg. 137. Second Term At his second inauguration (during a cold, wet rain), Steele announced the Second Four Year Plan, promising to build on the foundation of the first, and promising neither Reds nor Fascists would derail the country.Ibid., pgs. 138-140. After the speech, he met with Charlie Sullivan, and thanked him for the "Matter with Kansas" line. He also reminded Sullivan how critical of Steele his brother Mike remained.Ibid., pgs. 141-142. Still, he continued to notice Charlie. In March, 1937, Steele and his staff traveled to Chattanooga to celebrate the completion of a dam in the Tennessee Valley. He was met with large crowds, although one person yelled out "Who killed Huey Long?" The speech was held at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium. Before he got very far into his speech, a soldier named Roland Laurence South jumped to his feet and fired two shots at Steele before the Secret Service men shot him dead. One shot did hit Steele in chest, but only after it had struck the lectern Steele was standing behind and lost its momentum, causing only a superficial wound and cracked rib.Ibid., pgs. 143-148. Steele appointed J. Edgar Hoover to head the new Government Bureau of Investigation, and charged him with investigating the U.S. Army. In a radio speech announcing the creation of the GBI under director J. Edgar Hoover, Steele also declared that there were wreckers in all levels of society, including in the press.Ibid., pgs. 150-151. In the summer of 1937, J. Edgar Hoover announced the arrest of several officers in the Army and Navy, including generals and admirals for conspiring with "foreign powers" in Roland South's efforts to assassinate Steele. As with the Supreme Court Four, the arrested officers faced military tribunalsIbid. pgs. 155-157. and were executed.Ibid., pg. 159. This purge gave Steele the opportunity to cultivate officers loyal to him. The arrests were by no means restricted to the military; civilians were also swept up as "wreckers" and taken before an administrative judge, who rubber stamped their sentence to a labor camp.Ibid. Among these was Mike Sullivan. Despite Charlie Sullivan's close ties and support for Steele, his brother Mike remained a consistent critic. When Mike Sullivan published a piece entitled "Where is Our Freedom Going?" for the New York Post, a piece that compared Steele to Hitler and Trotsky, the GBI arrested him. He was found guilty of libel against the Administration and sent to Montana.Ibid., pgs. 166-169. Prelude to World War II As the GBI rounded up wreckers as home, storm clouds were gathering around the world. Japan had begun a war in China on 1937. The Spanish Civil War had become a proxy war between Adolf Hitler and Leon Trotsky.Ibid., pg. 159. The year 1938 proved momentous. In March, Hitler ordered the annexation of Austria to Germany, and immediately began making claims on the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia.Ibid. pg. 196. Despite loud support from Steele and Trotsky (both of whom feared what Hitler might do unchecked), France and Britain, rather than fight Hitler, brokered a deal in which the Sudetenland was granted to Germany in September, 1938.Ibid., pg. 202-203. In response, Steele decided to issue a statement, but found his writers not up to the task. He summoned Charlie Sullivan to the White House and asked him to help. After fifteen minutes of work, Sullivan produced a draft that greatly pleased Steele. In fact, Steele was so pleased he offered Charlie a job as a speechwriter on the spot, which Sullivan accepted.Ibid., pgs. 203-204. Six months into the job, Steele tasked Sullivan and his other aides with writing a speech about Germany's annexation of the Bohemia and Moravia and creation of the independent Republic of Slovakia, and how this now positioned Germany to move on Poland.Ibid., pgs. 205-207. Hitler now turned his attention to the Polish Corridor. Leon Trotsky, now realizing that France and Britain could not be counted on, Trotsky sent his foreign commissar, Maxim Litvinov to Berlin to negotiate a non-aggression pact with Litvinov's German counter-part, Joachim von Ribbentrop.Joe Steele, pg. 212. (Some found it ironic that the Jewish Trotsky had sent the Jewish Litvinov into the "world's capital of anti-Semitism."Ibid.) Steele and his administration realized quickly that the U.S. was too far away to influence anything beyond publicly pleading with Britain and France to stand firm against Germany, while condemning both Germany and the Soviet Union, to no avail.Ibid., pg. 213. Germany invaded Poland a week later, setting off World War II.Ibid. pg. 214. The Soviet Union attacked Poland from the east a few weeks after that.Ibid., pg. 215. Upon Poland's capitulation, Hitler and Trotsky met at the new frontier.Ibid., pg. Steele didn't enter the war, instead giving what came to be called the "Plague on Both Your Houses" speech, which promised that the U.S. would not enter into Europe's "latest stupid war".Ibid., pg. 216. World War II When war began in Europe, Steele was content to remain neutral. He hated both Hitler and Soviet Premier Leon Trotsky equally. However, when Hitler was able gain the upper-hand on the continent, Steele began to support Britain with loans and weapons. He was re-elected to an unprecedented third term in 1940 on the promise that the United States would not enter the war. When Hitler declared war on the Soviet Union in 1941, Steele tarried for six weeks before providing the Soviet Union with aid. In December, 1941, however, the United States entered the war when Japan attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. Weeks later, the Philippines had also fallen to the Japanese. Steele ordered the trial and execution of Admiral Husband Kimmel and General Walter Short (the military leaders in charge of Pearl Harbor) and General Douglas MacArthur, who'd fled the Philippines. Fourth Term and the end of War Despite the fact that Japan had attacked the U.S., Steele concentrated on Europe. When the Soviet Army defeated the German army at the battle of Trotskygrad in 1943, Steele began to more earnestly prepare to open a western front. The Normandy invasion took place in 1944 (the same year Steele was re-elected, unopposed, to a fourth term), and Germany was caught in a vise. Germany surrendered in 1945. Steele turned to Japan, ordering an invasion of the islands in late 1945. After a period of brutal fighting, the Soviet Union invaded the northern islands, taking Hokkaido and the northern part of Honshu. The rest of Japan was occupied by the United States. Emperor Hirohito was killed by an incendiary bomb, and the fighting simply stopped. The Professor's Plot The following year, Steele learned that Germany had been working on an atomic bomb project. Steele interrogated Albert Einstein about his possible knowledge of the bomb. Einstein admitted that he'd almost written to Steele about building a bomb, but feared that Steele would use it. Steele responded by rounding up and executing several Jewish scientists. However, one, Edward Teller, offered to build the bomb in exchange for his life. Steele agreed. The Japanese War and Fifth Term In 1948, North Japan, the puppet state established by the Soviet Union, invaded South Japan, the state created by the U.S. South Japan's troops retreated in the face of the North's onslaught until they met U.S. Marines at Utsunomiya. The Marines held, defeating the North Japanese. With the war on, Steele won a fifth term. The Japanese War proved to be an ugly war. It ended in 1949, with an exchange of atomic weapons. The U.S. destroyed Sapporo, the capital of North Japan, with Edward Teller's completed atomic bomb on August 6. On August 9, the Soviet Union destroyed the major city of Nagano, South Japan. Death Steele turned his attention back to the U.S., finding more traitors. He was elected to a sixth term in 1952, but died six weeks after being sworn in on March 5, 1953. His vice president, John Nance Garner, ascended to the presidency and ordered the executions of the Hammer and J. Edgar Hoover. The Hammer ordered the deaths of Garner and Hoover. Hoover ordered the deaths of Hammer and Garner, and succeeded in his task. Hoover ascended to the presidency, and proved to be even more tyrannical than Steele. Joseph Stalin in Southern Victory ]] The "Man of Steel" (1878-1925) was a leader of the Russian Revolution and the Socialist faction of the Russian Civil War (1917-1926). He was among the leaders of that movement to make their last stand against the counterrevolutionary forces of Tsar Mikhail II in the city of Tsaritsyn.The Center Cannot Hold, pg. 92. Joseph Stalin in the War World Series Early in the Shangri-La Road Campaign general Hammer-of-God Jackson secretly met with a number of Sauron vassal state leaders including chairman Yegor Vladimirovitch of the New Soviet Men. On entering the council chamber, each of the chairman's officers ground their heels in a mosaic portrait of an ordinary looking man with a high forehead and blood colored birthmark on it. After, they bowed to two portraits on the wall, one of a balding man with a neatly trimmed beard, the other of a clean shaven man with a bushy moustache. See Also * King Swemmel of Unkerlant, a fictional monarch in the Darkness series, who is modeled on Joseph Stalin. * Jake Featherston, the fictional President of the Confederate States in the Southern Victory series, who turns his democratic country into a dictatorship. *Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States in OTL. Roosevelt and Stalin were important allies during World War II. In Joe Steele, an American Stalin arranges Roosevelt's death in July, 1932, thereby securing the Democratic nomination and the presidency. 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